National Lacrosse League Power Rankings: Week 7

Today was a Presidents day in the United States and Family Day in Canada. I spent the day on the backyard rink with my family but now its time think about lacrosse again. Maybe one of these years we will try playing an NLL game on this holiday Monday. Every team in the NLL except for the Philadelphia Wings played this past weekend. Philly is coming off three straight losses and if they were hoping that another NLL team would stumble this weekend they must like what they saw in Colorado as Mammoth were beat up for the second straight weekend. In the marquee game of the weekend the Toronto Rock came back from an early 6-3 deficit against the red hot Calgary Roughnecks and dominated the rest of the game with a convincing 17-12 victory. Theres no doubt that Toronto is the number one team at this point in the season but lets see how the other 8 teams fit in.

Lets checkout this weeks Power Rankings.

1 (1)

Toronto Rock6-2
Toronto were lucky to be close with the Calgary Roughnecks after one period but for the rest of the game the Rock outclassed their opponent. Toronto got solid goaltending, good defence and transition and excellent shooting from Garrett Billings and Colin Doyle. Toronto has the weekend off and then will meet Buffalo on a Thursday night at the ACC.

2 (2)

Calgary Roughnecks5-3
By defeating the Minnesota Swarm 17-16 on Saturday the Calgary Roughnecks salvaged what could have been a terrible weekend. Shawn Evans continues to lead the offence but Calgary must also like the production they got from Dane Dobbie (8 goals) and Scott Ranger (7 goals) over the weekend. Calgary is 4-1 on the road this year and will play their third consecutive road game next week in Washington.

3(6)

Buffalo Bandits4-3
When the Bandits are bad they look terrible (last weeks 15-7 loss against Rochester) but they come back with an impressive 10-6 win against those same Knighthawks at Rochester. Anthony Cosmo put in an MVP performance as he stopped 54 of 60 shots sent his way. The Bandits have next weekend off but will play the Toronto Rock and the Philadelpha Wings the following weekend.

4 (3)

Rochester Knighthawks3-4
The Knighthawks lost to the Buffalo Bandits for the second time this season, this time 10-6 in Rochester. After winning three games in a row, including two dominant victories last weekend, I actually considered keeping the Knighthawks in the number three spot. However when you think about it, the Knighthawks have only been impressive 1 out of 7 weekends this year. Rochester will host Philadelphia this weekend.

5 (8)

Edmonton Rush3-4
Edmonton jumps three spots in the Power Rankings as they probably had their most dominant weekend in franchise history defeating Washington 15-10 and Colorado 14-7. Super Rookie Mark Matthews scored 6 goals on Friday and 5 on Saturday to lead the offensive charge. Matthews now leads all NLL players with 23 goals and for the first time in franchise history the Rush have a Wayne Gretzky-like superstar scoring goals for them.

6(4)

Washington Stealth4-4
Im not really sure what to make of Washington this year. They have been involved in 3 close games and five blowouts - some in their favour and some not. This weekend it was not in their favour as they lost to the Edmonton Rush for the second time this season  this time by a score of 15-10 which was an improvement to their last loss to the Rush. Next weekend Washington will host Calgary.

7 (5)

Minnesota Swarm2-4
Normally you might not be too disappointed when a young team loses by a 1 goal (17-16) to the Calgary Roughnecks but when Calgary comes in to town after a tough game 24 hours earlier you have to pounce on your chances. Tied at 13 going into the fourth quarter the Swarm were not able to capitalize on a 5 minute major penalty to Geoff Snider and a second Calgary minor penalty. In fact Minnesota gave up three short handed goals in the fourth quarter. Next week Minnesota plays Edmonton twice.

8(6)

Colorado Mammoth2-4
For the second consecutive week Colorado was dismal this time losing at home by a score of 14-7 against the Edmonton Rush. As of now Colorado is the second lowest scoring team and has the worst goals against average. Next week could be the battle for the basement as Colorado travels to Philadelphia.

9 (9)

Philadelphia Wings2-3
Philly had the week off but were probably watching Rochester lose to Buffalo and Colorado get blown out by Edmonton. The Wings hope to stop their three game losing streak when they play Rochester and Colorado this weekend.